


christmas is the time to say i love you.

by porcelainsimplicity



Series: christmas stories [14]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Advent Challenge, Christmas, Christmas Party, Gift Exchange, M/M, Secret Santa, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 09:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16951005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcelainsimplicity/pseuds/porcelainsimplicity
Summary: Christmas is the time to say "I love you"Share the joys of laughter and good cheerChristmas is the time to say "I love you"And a feeling that will last all through the yearor:  there's an annual Secret Santa gift exchange and John gets a present he didn't expect.





	christmas is the time to say i love you.

**Author's Note:**

> Day 11 prompt: Notes and gifts from a “Secret Santa” take an interesting turn.
> 
> Day 11 title song: Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You by Billy Squier

The Secret Santa gift exchange between all of them wasn't new. They'd done it pretty much every year since they'd been at the school, starting off with just John, Bobby, and Jubilee and growing to include Kitty, Piotr, and Rogue. On November first, Jubilee would put slips of paper with everyone's names on it into a hat and they would each choose one and then they'd open the gifts close to Christmas. Part of the exchange was the fact that they weren't supposed to say who the gift was from, making it also a guessing game. The gifts were never expensive – no one had very much money – but they were always chosen with care and catered to the person that the gift was for.

Which was why practically every year John got some sort of lighter. 

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the lighters because he did. After all, he had gotten his beloved Zippo from Jubilee when he was thirteen. But he never had any anticipation on what it was he was going to get in the exchange because he already knew. And him already knowing made it not as exciting, and the gift exchange not being that exciting always bummed him out.

Christmas always was his favorite time of year.

He'd gotten Rogue's name this year, and he'd spent all of about two minutes deciding what to get her before he settled on gloves. But he wasn't going to get just any gloves, he was going to get the nicest gloves that were available at the Westchester mall, no matter the cost, because while no one put that much effort into his gifts, he always put all the effort he could into the ones he gave. 

The problem was just that he didn't know Rogue that well. She hadn't been at the school for long and had only really been hanging out with them for about a month, and John didn't know how he was supposed to have known her personality the way he knew Jubilee's or Kitty's or Piotr's or Bobby's. So he was taking the safe option and getting her gloves because he knew she'd actually use them and he figured she might like some that were a bit fancier than the ones she always wore. He walked around the correct section in the department store for about five minutes before he spotted some that were dark and silk, picked them up to examine them, checked the price, and then headed to a register. He'd needed to get them bought before anyone else saw.

They had a rule not to tell anyone who they'd gotten in the exchange until after it was over, so, despite his curiosity, he never asked Bobby even though he was dying to know. He just assumed that Bobby had gotten Jubilee or Kitty again this year, because Bobby somehow always had ended up getting Jubilee or Kitty in the exchange, and didn't think very much about it. 

When the day came to actually exchange the presents, held a few days before Christmas actually was because Bobby and Kitty always went back to their parents for the holiday itself, everyone gathered in the room he shared with Bobby. Jubilee, the self-appointed runner of the whole exchange, set the gifts in the middle of their circle. She then determined who would open whose first and handed them out. 

Kitty was first that year, and she got a really nice pair of headphones to replace the ones that she'd broken. Piotr was next and he laughed out loud at the Russian-English phrasebook and the tiny Russian flag. Rogue went after that, absolutely thrilled about the gloves, and John sighed with relief. Jubilee ended up with a pink scarf that would go with the yellow jacket she always wore perfectly. Bobby got an ice cube tray that made fun shapes instead of just cubes and he found it hysterical.

And then Jubilee handed John the last present. He could tell immediately that it wasn't a lighter because it was far too big for that, so he was intrigued. He unwrapped it carefully despite Jubilee telling him to just rip the damn paper already, and what came into view was a book. He turned it over and smiled. 

Shakespeare's sonnets. He'd always wanted a book of Shakespeare's sonnets.

“I don't know who got me this, but thank you,” John said sincerely, looking up at the group. He took in each of their reactions and tried to guess but all their faces were neutral. 

No one was giving anything away. 

He set the book to the side and enjoyed the rest of their mini Christmas party, and when everyone but Bobby had left the room, he settled down onto his bed and reached for the book again. When he opened it up, he noticed there was a note stuck to one of the pages, and he quickly flipped to that page. It was sonnet number one hundred thirty, and he read through the lines quickly. 

_My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;_  
_Coral is far more red than her lips' red;_  
_If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;_  
_If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head;_  
_I have seen roses damasked, red and white;_  
_But no such roses see I in her cheeks;_  
_And in some perfumes there is more delight;_  
_Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks._  
_I love to hear her speak, yet well I know_  
_That music hath a far more pleasing sound;_  
_I grant I never saw a goddess go;_  
_My mistress when she walks treads on the ground._  
_And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare_  
_As any she belied with false compare._

John pulled the note off the page and opened it up, shaking his head as he read what had been carefully printed on it. _I know this is about a woman, but it makes me think about you. I love you._ John was taken aback by the words written there, and even more taken aback by who had written them, because try as they had to keep the handwriting neutral, John would recognize that scrawl anywhere.

He set the book down and glanced over at Bobby, noting how Bobby immediately looked away. He'd been watching him read it then.

John got up and walked over to Bobby's bed, sitting down on the edge and nudging his shoulder. Bobby moved so they could both sit with their backs to the wall like they always did, and John dropped the note into Bobby's lap. “Look at what was in the book.”

Bobby picked it up and read it as nonchalantly as possible, but John could see his throat constrict ever so slightly. “So you have a secret admirer.”

“Apparently so,” John said, sticking the note back in the book. 

They sat in silence for a few moments before John reached out and tangled his fingers together with Bobby's on the bed. “You know I can tell that's your handwriting, right?”

Bobby swallowed hard. “I thought you probably would be able to but I had to write it anyway.”

John squeezed his fingers. “Why didn't you say something sooner?”

“Because I knew how you'd react,” Bobby said quietly. “I didn't want to make things uncomfortable. And I get that they will be now and I'm sorry. I just couldn't keep it inside anymore.”

John shifted around until his head was on Bobby's shoulder. “You're an idiot.”

“I know.”

“I'm not anything special, you know,” John continued. “Certainly not special enough to be compared to a Shakespearean sonnet.”

“You don't know how special you are,” Bobby said softly. “You never have.”

“Perhaps,” John said. “But you don't know how special you are to me either.”

John could feel Bobby's confusion and kept talking. “I think I've been in love with you since my third day here, to be perfectly honest. You cared more about me in those three days than anyone ever had in my entire life. I tried to tell myself that it was ridiculous, tried to remind myself that you could never feel like that about me, but I couldn't stop myself from falling in love with you.”

Bobby was silent for a few moments. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” John said, tilting his head so he was looking at him. “So I love you and you love me and we really should be doing something about that.”

Bobby hesitated and John shook his head, sitting up and pulling Bobby into a kiss. Bobby didn't move for a moment and then he began to kiss John back, and John sighed happily into his mouth when Bobby let him deepen the kiss. He pulled back after a moment and took in the look on Bobby's face before laughing. “That's what I meant by doing something about it, Drake.”

Bobby swallowed hard before diving in for another kiss, and John pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around Bobby's neck and holding him there. They broke apart only when they needed to breathe and this time Bobby had a smile on his face. “You're actually serious about this?”

John just rolled his eyes. “I wouldn't be making out with you if I wasn't.”

“I think Piotr owes all the girls money then.”

John laughed. “They bet on this?”

“Of course. Piotr was the only one who said we wouldn't. I tried to ignore it but Jubes and Kitty have been talking to me about making a move for months. Rogue said it was obvious to her the moment she started hanging out with us.”

John laughed again. “Jubes and Kitty have been telling me to make a move for months too. If it wasn't for the randomness of the gift exchange, I'd almost think they'd planned this.”

“I wouldn't put it past Jubilee to have planned this anyway,” Bobby said, pulling the book out of John's hand and dropping it to the floor. “I would like to kiss you some more, if that's alright.”

John just grinned at him. “I have no problem with that. Merry Christmas, Bobby.”

“Merry Christmas, Johnny.”


End file.
